I heart you square vase...

It's my first picture Saturday...(well, second if you count the hair thing...which I decided not to). I hope you all have a nice weekend.



Flowers surrounded by clutter crap.

La la la la....

So not much going on. A lot of work, some Lollapalooza, some couch sitting. Lolla wasn't what I had hoped...but I don't know what I had hoped since I didn't really care much about any bands other than Pearl Jam. And watching Pearl Jam with what felt like 1,000,000 other sweaty, steamy fans was not all that enjoyable. Why does Lolla have to be 172 degrees whenever I go?

I caved and joined facebook. I really do not withstand peer pressure very well. At least when it comes to new technology.

As for my self-esteem improvement plan, here are some updates:

1. My hair has improved my morale...although the humidity is causing weird curling action at the front and I hate that. However, it won't be humid forever. Right? Right?
2. Working out: I went to the gym to join and it doesn't make sense to join until August 20th (I'd have to pay the full summer price for only 2 weeks of working out - if I wait until the 20th, then it's fall quarter price). So that is on hold just a bit. One of my coworkers works out there every day at the same time that I will and he agreed to help motivate me to go (all I need is motivation to actually show up there).
3. As for make-up...yeah, haven't started that yet. I'm still getting used to my hair routine (which is still not established firmly). I think early next week I'll be set with that routine and I can add the 5 minutes of make-up time.
   

That's all. Sorry for the boringness lately. When school starts and/if I get hired on as a salaried employee, some excitement and interesting stuff may happen soon. You know, walking to work I miss a lot of the crazy CTA stories...

Adventures...

I had a bus adventure like no other yesterday. Going home from Andersonville on the Clark bus. I wanted to post about it yesterday, but I figured the hair thing would sort of overshadow anything else. Bus Adventure:

An old guy kept pulling the stop wire for every stop. The bus driver yelled back that if he pulled it again and didn't get off, he was going to be kicked off of the bus. So, what did he do? Pull it again. The bus driver came back to the old guy and told him he had to get off the bus. Some nosy other guy gets involved and starts threatening the old guy to get off. For a bit I really thought the old guy would just sit and ignore them until the police came (because at this point the bus driver was threatening police and dialing his phone). But then, the old guy gets up, pulls the wire a dozen times and flaps his shopping bag at nosy guy while turning to go. Nosy guy punches him in the back!! At which point old guy starts flailing at nosy guy with his shopping bag and then spits in his face! Old guy gets off of the bus (bus driver is off of the bus, supposedly on the phone with the police). Old guy starts chasing the bus driver! Bus driver gets back on the bus laughing...old guy was trying to spit on him. Sounds like I made that up, but it happened. On the bus I was on. I have some weird bus luck.

I'm thinking about doing picture Saturdays. What do you think?

As for hair day 2...it turned out way better than I thought. There is one hair that's a bit too long which I might have to trim, but that doesn't bother me. I can't help but think this is a really great cut because it all laid perfectly even after a pretty violent and amateurish blow-dry. I did a little of that whole "round brush, make the bottoms turn under" thing, but mostly, it did it on it's own. The back...I'll need to be more careful with the back tomorrow. It doesn't look awful by any means, but it could be better....

So I'm sharing more pictures so that you all can see the sides/angling. I think the one pic I posted yesterday didn't really do much for the style....so here I am on day 2. That picture of the back...yeah, that was nearly impossible to take all by myself...

No more hair...

My hair is gone. And 12.5 inches of it (yes! a foot and change, not kidding!) is going to be sent to Locks of Love on Monday. Looking at and touching that hank of hair is sort of creepy...I liken it to a dead animal. Hair, when not on the head, is sort of icky. You all just want me to get to it and post the pictures (that is, if you didn't immediately just look at the pictures before even reading this?).

So here's the before:

So much hair! Too much...












You know you're looking at this picture thinking...ugh, yeah, that looks baaaaddddd.














Here's the during:
It was quite surreal....

















And here I am holding my ponytail, with my new sassy do:

The general idea is one of those angled dos...plus a little bit of bang. The bangs? They are annoying me pretty heavily right now. But, I don't hate the haircut at all. Back is below...

Really short at the bottom (and feels all fuzzy and delicious. You can bet I'll be rubbing the back of my head quite a bit...). I think this pic was taken with my hair tucked behind the ears...



All in all, not a terribly traumatic experience. It feels pretty good. I think I like the do, but would like it to be longer on the sides (which was not an option). So yeah, someday some child will get a wig of Katie hair....

Wobble...

OK all, so this weekend I get my hair chopped off...and I have no plan. No plan. It's actually a little scary now that it's so close.

I don't have much to blog about, but I did want to outline my "build up your horrible body image/self-esteem" plan. Two of my friends were bothered by the last bachelorette party blog post. And after chatting, I realize I have some self-esteem issues. So, my short-term plan is to artificially inflate my body image/self-esteem through...artificial means. This plan involves:

• Hopefully hot new hair cut. I don't think it's going to be as short as I'm willing to go, so even if I hate the first cut, there will always be somewhere to go with it...right? Right.
  
• Wearing a full face of makeup (for me that just means foundation + mascara) a few times a week. At least once a week to work, if not way more. I need, need, need to look in the mirror under those hideous fluorescent lights and not think "Oh, you look skeletal and dead tired today. Pretty awful really".
• Starting to gain muscle. See below for lengthy discourse on how I hate that I want to do this, but feel for my sake, I have to right now.

My sister wrote a lovely post about a book she read and about how awful it is that there is a societal pressure to be thin...and one of the comments said exactly how I feel (and yes, I'm going to quote a comment):

the saddest part is that I see my friends and think about what amazing, intelligent, truly beautiful women they are, but I can't see that in myself, because all I can see is the many ways that I don't measure up to the standard of beauty set by magazines

And I'm not sure how to fix that. So I'm going for the artificial ways. I'm not going to diet. I'm tired of dieting. But I do desire muscle. I would very much like my arms to have tone instead of being entirely like gelatinous blobs of spotty fat (spotty because of that pesky skin condition, keratosis pilarsis, which won't go away...and the only way to make it better is to use gross ointments and lotion. Not worth it).

So I'm joining the gym that is right around the corner from work and that is discounted for me. The only time I ever enjoyed...moving...was when I was using an elliptical. So, I'm hoping I can get back into the swing of hitting the gym...for 30 minutes or so. I also have high hopes for classes. I would very much like to try "Cardio Party" or spinning. Yes. Spinning.

That's the plan kids. And it starts Monday.

No way...no way...

This is a joke right: EPA Backs BP Dumping. Has to be a joke?

What the fuck is going on with our government?

Go sign the petition. Now. I'm not joking. GO!

And if you have money, go donate to help.

HP Spoiler Alert...

Don't read this if you haven't finished 7. For real.

The truth is, I wanted to call this post RIP Harry Potter. But then I thought I would get a lot of hell for spoiling the book for people even though that isn't the truth of it. You know, people would think I was spoiling it even though I wasn't. This second read of the book I felt a little grief that the series is over. It's funny, but I became so attached to these characters...and even loving the last book didn't make the end any easier. So RIP Harry Potter, I truly will miss new stories...

I'm not sure where to start on book 7. So first, I thought I'd recap my "predictions":

• I was right about Harry as horcrux.
• I was slightly wrong about why Snape stares piercingly at Harry (probably just staring piercingly at Lily's eyes, right?)
• Dumbledore's triumphant look? Totally explained.
• All my deaths - I got 3 right (Snape, Voldy, Mad-Eye). I still think Neville should have died. That's terrible, I know, but I guess I yearn for a tragic hero?
  
• As for my wavering on Harry's death...clearly I was right both ways. Everyone was right really.

The only other things I really feel like I want to mention have come out of larger discussions.

I was discussing with friend Alex how most of the characters aren't all good or all bad. Friend Alex said she just didn't see why there couldn't be more "all bad" people. And why Snape had to be good. But I think this is also part of a larger issue that we discuss a lot - black, white and gray. I believe strongly in gray. And then this sentence jumped out at me tonight: "He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found a home there" (Harry being HE, Hogwarts being THERE) and bam, it seemed obvious. Harry - all good, Snape - clearly stuck in the middle and Voldy - all bad. It's like a little spectrum of good to evil. What a lesson for the kiddies right? And I must say...in this second reading, I started to love Snape a little. Like...I wanted to just hug him and take away his unrequited love pain...

The epilogue. There is muttering. Too happy, too "all wrapped up", blah blah. I'm not sure what is wrong with a happy epilogue? After reading 6.9992 books that mostly ended badly, why can't the one end well? My sis and I discuss how people often have this weird requirement that good literature end unhappily. Why are we all so ready to believe in misery over mirth?

I also find the whole power thing interesting - that Dumbledore was turning down Minister of Magic because he didn't trust himself and not because he really didn't want the job. I particularly like this idea: "perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it."

I have a little bone to pick with the whole series...and this is sort of a weird side note. But it seems to me that the two really "Mom" characters throughout the series (really only Mrs. Weasley and Petunia) are both housewives. And while I see nothing wrong with this at all...I always, always question it in the Weasley's case. They were poor, in every book there is a reference to their monetary situation - so why wasn't Molly helping out? Especially after Ginny went to school? It seems like a subtle criticism of working mothers?

I guess that is all. I don't really feel like talking about the deaths, or the crying, or the whole ride. I do think the book was a little rocky/patchy with some rough spots. But I still loved it. And I'll probably still re-read these books (and cry every single time) over and over again...

Aura of impenetrability...

And here, my dearests, is the final bachelorette party observation post. This post is particularly relevant as I felt all of this at the actual wedding as well.

At the bachelorette party, it became obvious that certain people were getting hit on constantly. Obviously the loud, drunken, sort of slutty girls were the first target. But then two of the bridesmaids were also getting hit on...and it was hard for me to figure out why these girls. And I guess the continuation of that is...why not me?

There's a lot of hypocrisy in that statement...because I don't want to be hit on by men in bars, I don't. But at the same time, I do. Because who doesn't want to be found attractive?

And I think there is something about me that screams - "Don't even try it" and I think I have to try to ease up on that somehow.

I think that I am afraid of being second best too...and I'm afraid of always being the friend. I think a lot of my feelings about boys revolve around fear and I have got to get away from that somehow. I'm going to try that whole online dating thing again just as soon as I'm done with school (um...in about a year...yes, I know that's a long time) and maybe I can somehow grow some trust in the meantime...

I remember the look in your eyes...

This, my friends, is going to be a marathon post. Not like some others you may have seen here. Longer! With more pictures! And lots of fun will be had by all. This is the recap of the last week. This has possibly been one of the most fun weeks of my life. Other bridesmaid L said it right when she said that each day/event was more fun than the last (I believe she said funner. We were tired. Cut her some slack). Culminating in the best wedding ever. Most fun...ever. For real.

I'm still sitting here with crunchy bridesmaid hair and fearing that the Taco Bell I ate earlier maybe wasn't a good idea....maybe.

I advise you to sit back, grab a drink and dig your ass into your chair.... First off, the bachelorette shindig. I've already talked a bit about it (dinner at Ba-Ba-Reeba, then Lions Head, then the Apartment), but I feel like I should share pictures. Especially since one of these pictures is the only picture I have of all the bridesmaids. And I don't have any of all the groomsmen.

Here are all the bridesmaids (and the bride obviously). From left to right, although no real names given unless they have referred to themselves that way on this site: K, C, L, Alex, Me, Katy


And here is the little group of girls I feel like I've known forever (again, L to R, Katy, Alex, L and myself). We're a happy bunch, yes?

So, there's that. Bacherlorette: Check!

Personal shower...I have no pictures of this at all. It turned out brilliantly, and I would not hesitate to suggest the South Water Kitchen "family room" (I think they call it the River Room). It seats about 30 and can be "reserved" and used for free. For free! You know...except for the cost of the food. It was a laid back day of lots of lingerie oogling.

Rehearsal and Rehearsal dinner...the Rehearsal was a bit of a challenge (they can get thoroughly boring, especially when you're on time and it feels like everyone else is lost)...however, we didn't pay much attention and had a lot of fun doing a bunch of nothing. Same at the rehearsal dinner. We were all well on our way to comfortable together and thus, we started ribbing each other mercilessly.

I can't really talk about the rehearsal dinner without talking about the wedding, because they followed much the same pattern. So here's a picture of some of the girls at drinks after the rehearsal dinner.


I think a sort of natural grouping occurred and I ended up spending most of my time with a few of the people throughout the end of the week. Here is my tribute to them:

Al with her GIANT beer. It was giant. This picture was taken at the same bar as above. Note to subject: if you read this and hate your picture representation, let me know.


This is L. And this is her fake smile face. We were talking about the unnatural amount of pictures that bride Katy likes to take and how we were going to fake smile in those pictures. I heart this picture. Taken again at drinks after rehearsal dinner. Note to subject: if you read this and hate your picture representation, let me know.

And here are our groomsmen (ok, not mine...here are L and Al's groomsmen, respectively D and S) who spent the night with us generally cracking us up. The night of the wedding (where this pic was taken) we spent hours and hours with these two. Note to subjects: if you read this and hate your picture representation, let me know.

And finally, I thought you all might want to see the best man ("my" groomsman). This is about the only picture I have of him (which I don't think I took). I had a lot of people commenting to me about how hot he is... can you see it? Note to subject: if you read this and hate your picture representation, let me know.

All in all, I have patchy pictures. I have a few pictures of before the wedding, NONE during, and a few from between the reception and the after party. For a day that was 19 hours long (yes...not a lie) I have pitifully few pictures. I will hopefully be buying pictures from the photographers eventually.

Katy was a beautiful bride (and I somehow have no pictures of it. I'm clearly getting used to this having a camera thing). The ceremony went swimmingly. It was touching and very much like the couple. There were some laughs, some tears and overall it was lovely. The reception started with my being a horrible nervous wreck. I got to give my toast first, and while I rushed, my general idea came across and I got a few "nice jobs" afterwards, so hey...it's over. After that I was finally able to relax and just enjoy the party. And it was a great party. Tons of dancing, drinking, and general merriment.

After the reception (at which point I was completely drunk), we went back to the hotel where we had a conference room booked and continued the party. This continued til about 4:15am. Then me and 3 others (Al, L and S from above) continued to chat and laugh until 5. Yeah. 5am. We finally went back to the room. In total, I think I got about 2 hours of sleep. I'm exhausted but happy - it was SO much fun. No one wanted it to end (including the bride, who told us all she had a mini tantrum in her room with the groom and wouldn't take off her dress because then it would be over...)

A delightful wedding. Now how can the rest of us ever hope to live up to that?

Timing...

Hi all...I still have two posts from the bachelorette party planned, but I feel a time crunch coming on as the wedding is tomorrow (holy shit!) and I have some things to get done still. I think I'll cram one of the posts here today and then put the other one off for a while. Hopefully it'll still be as good way after the fact...

When you're friends with a bunch of girls that have known each other forever (or...10ish years), there is a certain amount of cattiness that is just a part of that relationship. I honestly think that this is the only way that the friendships can survive...it's like they are a member of your family, and you don't feel weird bitching about your family...so sometimes you just need to bitch about your friends. I hope none of those friends are shocked - it's not like we all don't do it. We do. That doesn't mean we love each other any less...in fact, I think it sort of shows that we love each other enough to be comfortable to bitch. But...what I wonder is....what are the topics that my friends bitch about when they talk about me? I feel like I'm a fairly aware person. And I have a good idea of what a few of those things are....but this is just me imagining it. How can I really know? It's sort of intriguing to me to wonder about this stuff....

I know I'm not perfect. I know my friends and family know I'm not perfect. And I respect their right to bitch about it....but wouldn't it be fun to be clued in? No? Maybe there's a little bit of masochism there....

Bachelorette party observed...

So, I'm first going to explain what we did. Then I'm going to tell you what I observed....

First, we ate at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. It was a lovely meal in which we downed quite a few pitchers of Sangria. Lots of food was consumed as well (I do believe I ate at least 3/4 of a plate of Garlic Potato Salad. That stuff is SO good). I think we all got along charmingly and towards the end we were creating quite a lot of noise (our speech volume escalated in direct proportion to the volume of Sangria we consumed). We moved on to Lion Head. We drank a lot. We went upstairs to the Apartment to dance. And drank (some of us). That's the story.

Two things in this post, then more in the next few days/week (depending on the amount of time I have). Most don't really have to do with the actual party, more with things I noticed while attending said party.

First, I have this uncanny ability to say the wrong thing even when sober. I think I've gotten better at this recently...but sometimes I'm following my own train of thought, and I say something to others that makes complete sense to me, but somehow turns out to sound really blunt or totally mean. But I generally didn't mean it that way at all and if I could have phrased it better or started out with some explanation of what is about to come out of my mouth, things would definitely turn out better for me. I think this issue increases when drunk. I'm not happy about it and I think I should not allow myself to speak without thinking/explicating when drunk...

Second, I think I could make money off of personalized buttons if I gear them toward this kind of thing. Basically I made name buttons for everyone in the wedding colors - those of us who didn't know each other could look at the buttons to remind us of a name. How often do you secretly wish everyone had name tags, but realize that would be hideous? This solves that need...the buttons turned out so cute that they can also be a little party favor. Maybe when I get a website up I'll think about doing something on Etsy or something. But how in hell do you market that? Bachelorette/bridal buttons in your wedding colors! Get em while they're hot! See the button here.

Long weekend...

So, I have a few blog posts planned in the next few days....

First, Harry Potter. I finished the book Saturday before the bachelorette party I was attending with about an hour and a half to spare. I actually want to read the book again. People groan, why would I want to read it again so soon? I did read a little too fast after about the halfway point and I did miss some stuff. So I'll post a long, long HP wrap-up after that. I also feel like I still shouldn't say anything about it, I mean, obviously I would put a spoiler alert up....but it'd be better if my HP post is at least a few days away....

Second (and third, maybe a fourth) some observations from the bachelorette party, spending time with friends and the personal shower. All of which I think were successful. I feel there were some minor hitches in the bachelorette party - but all in all I think everyone had fun and that it was what the bachelorette wanted.

So, look forward to that. I think I'll go be lazy..

Dreadful...

I have never felt so hopeless (weirdly, my fingers just automatically typed hopeful - I guess I type hopeful a lot more than hopeless) than I do watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?".

Hydrogen cars? Cost: $1mil dollar PER CAR in 2006, uber-expensive fuel., no infrastructure for the fuel, car won't work well in the cold (um, yeah, that makes it impossible), cars aren't reliable and get really small mpg. So why the hell is the government throwing all its eggs in that basket? It seems to me that it's because that means there is still some industry that provides fuel - it would be hydrogen, but it's still fuel.

So why did all the car companies retract their electric cars? Some of you may think that an electric car is a pipe dream....but you may not realize that Honda, Toyota and GM all had completely electric cars out there in the 90's. They were all pulled off the market (literally ripped from the hands of their owners) and CRUSHED. Compacted. Destroyed. Some of them not even recycled. Why could those cars not stay on the road? I just don't get it - I don't get how a technology that was available in the 1990's hasn't been brought back and improved upon. Yes, we have hybrids...but that means we're still dependent on fuel.

300 miles on one charge , 0 -60 in something that sounded really small, these are not useless cars. I don't get it.

How is it that industry grips us to that extent? We can't even give the automobile industry more money (and the electric industry) because there are no cars to buy....

The power of our government and big industry is staggering. And terrifying.

What is better...

What is better than...

• curly fries with cheese
• Harry Potter book in my hands in t-minus 8 hours (still seems so long)
• Spending a whole weekend with good friends
• wrapping presents (yes, I love it!)
• the blanket I'm knitting becoming so large that is warms my lap as I knit it (although it's still way too small...picture of it on my lap):

• A cat who is so lazy she lays down to drink out of the water bowl (note Mona's correct pose at the food bowl, sitting and eating. And then there's Boku....):

• Knowing that I finally, finally have an idea for my toast next Friday (but it still needs some thought)

Happy weekend all...

My most frequented website...

On nights like tonight, I probably spend hours here.

At first, I wasn't sure about their new radar map. But I've grown fond of it. My only issue is that after a certain amount of time, the animation "turns off" and needs a page refresh. That's bunk I tell you.

And, I'm shocked by the amount of feeling about Dan/Harry. It was very interesting to watch the horror-filled comments pour in...